“It was . . . different,” Harris started. “At least I figured out what my issues were and was able to let some of them go. I do feel better about things and myself.”
“So, any of you have any regrets about the sharing?” Murdock asked. No one spoke. “How about you, Annie, do you have any thoughts on it?”
“I feel closer to all of you than I thought possible. I’m glad I did it,” Annie said. “I do know, now, where your authority comes from. I was always wondering why you thought you had the authority to lay down the law to Phylicia and the others. Now, I know.”
“Can I talk to Bridget?” Declan asked.
“You’d have to ask Beron or talk to her through him. I think it is forbidden for her to talk directly to a male,” Murdock explained with a shrug. “It’s a cultural thing.”
“Welcome to the family,” flashed to everyone’s mind and they all knew it was from Mei Lee.
#
Ted Wagner was standing in front of Raymond Tutt. He had been working with the group for fourteen days doing odd jobs and was expecting to be admitted.
“Well, Wagner, everyone says you work well and keep to yourself. Why is that?” Tutt asked.
“I prefer to not be a bother to anyone,” Wagner shrugged. “It’s just the way I am, I guess.”
“What we need are bowmen. We have very few bows and few enough arrows, but we need someone who can hit what they’re aiming at. Is that you?”
“I don’t know, Tutt, but I’m willing to try.”
“If I give you a bow, am I going to have to worry about you shooting me with it?” Tutt asked as he narrowed his eyes.
“As long as you don’t stand in front of me, you should be safe. It’s been a very long time since I shot a bow, so I can’t promise anything, but I would think you’d be okay,” Wagner answered.
“I mean are you loyal? I need loyalty above all else. Can I trust you?” Tutt asked.
“All I’m asking is a chance to prove myself. If you find, after a reasonable time, that I can’t be trusted, then remove me.” Wagner was hoping that his past work and his arguments were enough for the skeptical leader.
“Okay, I’ll take a chance on you, but if you can’t prove to me that I can trust you, you’ll find a hatchet in your skull. Is that clear enough?” Tutt asked with a rough tone.
“Crystal clear, sir,” Wagner said with a grin of excitement. This was more than he had been told to accomplish, by Palmer, but it was something he wanted. He knew that Palmer was going to start a war between the different factions, hoping to come to the rescue of the survivors. Wagner hadn’t decided, yet, which side he was on. He was starting to believe that he would be safe here, safe from Murdock’s wrath.
Wagner’s instructions from Palmer had been to keep a low profile, watch, look, and report back. It had been fourteen days and he had watched and investigated, but he had yet to report back. He wasn’t sure he wanted to. He knew what Palmer would most likely use the information for, and he wasn’t sure he was willing to do that.
One of the craftsmen had developed a bow and a few arrows. Tutt had gathered all the men in their group for an archery competition to see who had any skill or aptitude. No one hit the target and he had gotten closest. He knew he wasn’t the best of the best. It’s more like I was best of the worst, he thought. At least, now, I can practice and maybe earn my way as a hunter for the group.
#
It was a few days after Murdock’s tribe increased that Murdock received a flash.
“Harvest hides?” Beron flashed.
“Yes, thank you.” Murdock flashed to Beron. He started loading the cart with what he might need. “Hides need harvesting,” he flashed to Mei Lee and Declan.
Mei Lee immediately informed all the female tribal members.
“What does that entail for us?” flashed to his mind from Emily.
“It means that we will be able to outfit you, Declan, Irene, and Annie with some clothing. It also means that Declan and I will be away for a while,” Murdock responded, “with a lot of work for all of us to process the hides.”
“Where are we going?” Declan asked aloud as he came up to Murdock.
“We’re going to be in the vicinity of your sister’s tomb, so we can take a minute to pay our respects before getting on with our work. You need to get outfitted like I am,” Murdock responded as he finished loading the cart. Mei Lee brought the kids out and they all bid their father good-bye, waving as he and Declan levitated across the river. They hadn’t gone far when Murdock stopped.
“Why are we stopping?” Declan asked.
“We need to get there faster, so you need to get on the cart,” Murdock said. As he picked up the handles of the cart, Murdock started off at an easy lope. After they had been traveling an hour or so, Murdock stopped next to Rose’s tomb.
“That was a quick trip,” Declan exclaimed. “You must have been doing thirty or forty miles an hour!”
Murdock ignored the quip and went to Rose’s tomb. After standing there quietly for a few minutes, he ritualistically kissed his fingers and touched them to the tomb. “Your turn,” he said to Declan as he returned to the cart. He watched as Declan approached the tomb, looking over his shoulder sheepishly. The thought struck Murdock that Declan may not know what to do, in this situation and it caused Murdock to chuckle to himself a little.
When the two men had finished, they proceeded at a normal pace downstream a few miles. They knew they were in the right spot when they came upon twenty deer corpses.
Murdock stripped off his leather shirt and waited for Declan to do the same.
“Watch and learn,” Murdock said to Declan as he pulled his six-inch knife and started skinning the first deer. “It isn’t too hard,” he said as he scored the hide around the neck, close to the deer’s head. “The skill comes in cutting just the hide.” Declan watched carefully as Murdock scored the hide around all four legs and then started the long cut down the underside of the neck to the back legs in a straight line. He then cut the hide on the inside of each leg up to the center cut.
“Now, comes the hard part,” Murdock said. “Grab a leg and pull the deer onto its back.” As soon as Declan managed to roll the heavy animal onto its back, Murdock deftly started peeling the hide as he cut the membrane holding it. It seemed to take little time to trim the hide off half the carcass. “Your turn, Declan, just do what I did,” Murdock said.
Declan took his own six-inch knife and tried his best to copy Murdock’s movements, while Murdock was holding the carcass. It only took Declan three times longer as it took Murdock. When they were finished skinning the first one, Declan stacked the hide on the cart, with the head attached, and the back-strap tendon on the inside of the hide.
After the first one, they each took a deer and skinned it. It continued for several hours and the hides were stacking up.
“Time comes for long sleep. You need meat?” Beron flashed to Murdock.
“Yes, we could use some,” Murdock responded.
“Take what need,” flashed back to Murdock from Beron.
“We are taking two of the deer home, so we need to quarter them before we’re done,” Murdock said to Declan. “Do you know how to do that?”
“I wasn’t much of a hunter before I came here,” Declan responded sheepishly.
“The more you do something, the easier it is to do,” Murdock said with a smile.
#
Murdock was standing in the transport pod the day after he and Declan had returned with a heavily loaded cart. He had already hung the deer quarters in the smokehouse and had left the cart with all the hides at his cabin.
“I haven’t decided what I should do with you,” Murdock said to Phylicia, Heather, and Kimberly.
“Why are we being held captive?” Phylicia asked haughtily. “We’ve done nothing to warrant being incarcerated!”
“Since you three have been here, you’ve done nothing to contribute to the rest of us,” Murdock said ignoring Phylicia’s questio
ns. “Consequently, we’re not inclined to allow you to be here. You were brought here to allow Phylicia to heal from her injuries and for your own safety. Now, you’ll be allowed to fend for yourselves, but not here. You’re going to be put back where the pod landed.”
“But we’ll die,” Heather shrieked. “We don’t know how to survive here!”
“You’re handing us a death warrant,” Kimberly said hotly.
“No use in appealing to his better nature, girls,” Phylicia responded condescendingly. “He is without any empathy and is unduly cruel. That’s just what I’d expect from a murderer!”
Murdock chuckled: “You’re back on that again? Like I told you, I didn’t murder anyone. Your cousin made his own choices and died because of them. The only ones I killed, from the first pod, were two of your cousin’s henchmen and that was done because of their raping and trying to kill two women and a man. I caught them in the act and they were given a chance. It was a trial by combat and I was unarmed. They were armed. The rest died from starvation or at the hand of your cousin.”
“My cousin would never hurt anyone,” Phylicia raged.
“He killed five people, with his own hand! One was a baby, his own child!”
“I refuse to believe anything you say,” Phylicia said through a clenched jaw.
“You can believe what you like,” Murdock said quietly. “I really don’t care what you choose to believe or how you wish to delude yourself.” Murdock shifted his gaze to Heather and Kimberly. “Are any of you pregnant?”
“That is none of your business,” Phylicia raged.
Heather and Kimberly both looked shocked and started to blush. “Yes,” Heather said with downcast eyes. Kimberly just looked at the ground and nodded.
Murdock sighed. “That complicates things.”
“Why should that be a complication for you?” Phylicia asked angrily. “It’s our problem and we’ll deal with it!”
“Irene, I need a doctor’s opinion,” Murdock flashed to the doctor. “Heather and Kimberly need an examination,”
“An examination . . . for what?” flashed to his mind from the doctor.
“Would you both consent to being examined by Doctor Harris?” Murdock asked quietly.
“Pregnancy,” Murdock flashed to Harris after the two women nodded their consent.
#
Shortly after Palmer had sent Wagner to the group furthest away from the river, he sent Jax Hornsby to the group that was closer to the river and Nels Osterlund to the group located below the terrace they were currently on. They, like Wagner, were to observe and report back. While they were gone, Palmer had managed to roll a few logs and cut a few limbs and was well into the process of making a make-shift shelter.
It had been close to twenty-one days since he had sent Wagner and a fortnight since he’d sent the other two and none had returned to report. He was beginning to doubt any of them would return. Every few days, Palmer would trek to the river and harvest a fish and refill his water skin. On one of the return trips, he followed the edge of the terrace closely, looking for an easier way down. Finding none, he returned to his shelter and cooked the fish.
As he sat enjoying his meal, he thought about getting off the terrace. He had no idea what was below the terrace, but he knew it would be less crowded than the current one and, he hoped, there would be a better shelter than he currently had. He had been feeling the weather getting colder, especially in the mornings, and knew his make-shift shelter wasn’t going to afford him much in the way of protection from the weather.
After finishing his meal, he walked to the edge of the terrace and continued to follow it in the direction of the mountains. After he’d gone a little over a mile, he saw a huge tree growing close to the terrace edge. As he looked at it, he figured it was only five or six feet out from the edge and had plenty of heavy limbs close in to the trunk. He knew it was a huge risk, but he felt if he got a run, he could jump over to the heavier limbs and then climb down. If I miss, it will be a long drop through the tree, he thought, wishing he had enough rope to climb down, not that he had any rope at all. The others had made sure to take it all when they deserted the council.
As he contemplated his jumping to the tree, he sat on the edge of the terrace and looked over. It looks like the edge overhangs a few feet, so sliding down on my butt is out of the question, he thought. Sliding would work only for the first few feet and then I’d be dropped straight down. A fifty-foot drop would be exceedingly painful. And what happens if I hit a small tree that I can’t see or a rock. No, the jump would be better and I could climb down. If I miss my target, then . . . what? No one would know where I am or where I went.
As he got to his feet, he had decided to consider it another day, but he would sharpen some small limbs to act as arrows to point the way to this spot on his way back to his camp. When he arrived at his camp, he collected firewood and made sure the fire was going. He had no sooner accomplished this than it started to rain.
As he huddled inside his leaking shelter, he was trying to keep from shivering while putting more wood on the fire. This is going to be a miserable night, he thought.
#
When Irene Harris arrived, being escorted by Emily, she removed her weapons and both women went into the pod. On their entry, Murdock left to wait outside the pod. He spent his time gathering more wood and keeping the small fire going.
When Irene and Emily entered the pod, she escorted Kimberly back to the room she had been using as a sickbay. Emily waited in the main room with Phylicia and Heather.
“What are you doing here?” Phylicia asked dourly.
“I’m here to keep the peace,” Emily said matter-of-factly, “and to insure Irene’s safety.”
“Can’t the Doctor take care of herself?” Phylicia asked disrespectfully. “Am I that much of a threat?”
“To Irene, you might be,” Emily responded dismissively. “To me, you’re no threat at all.”
After a few minutes, Irene and Kimberly exited the room and Heather followed the doctor back.
“So, what’s the verdict?” Phylicia asked. She didn’t look angry, but her voice said she was.
“Probably am,” Kimberly responded quietly.
“That was smart,” Phylicia chided. “You just had to get yourself knocked up, didn’t you?”
“That is enough, Phylicia,” Emily commanded. “Leave her alone.”
A few minutes later, Doctor Harris and Heather came out of the sickbay and Irene and Emily exited the pod.
“What did you find out?” Murdock asked as he handed the doctor her weapons.
“Since we don’t have the means to do a proper pregnancy test, I can’t say definitively that they are pregnant,” Irene said. “However, given the time they spent with Palmer and his goons and given all the external symptoms, I’d say that it is likely that both are pregnant.”
“That changes things,” Murdock said pensively. “I was going to put them back at the original pod site so we wouldn’t have to worry about them attacking us. Now, I can’t do that. The pod needs to be used for their shelter here and they need to be checked on periodically.”
“Would moving the pod closer to the cabin help?” Emily asked.
“It would make checking on them during their pregnancy easier,” Irene said.
“Yes, it would,” Murdock said, “but it would make it easier for them to attack us. It would endanger the kids and the rest of us and that is an unacceptable option, to me. I could put the pod across the river, but then they might see things I don’t want them to see.”
“So, what are you going to do?” Emily asked.
After a few minutes, Murdock went into the pod.
“You three are to stay here,” he told the inhabitants. “You’re not going to be guarded or restricted. While Heather and Kimberly are pregnant, you will be given venison and you can get your own fish, water, and wood. It will be up to the three of you as to how well you’re taken care of. Doctor Harris will come around per
iodically to check on your pregnancy progression.”
“Can we leave?” Phylicia asked haughtily.
“I wouldn’t recommend that as you could be attacked by wolves or other wild animals, but if you really want to, knock yourselves out.”
“Where are you going to be?” Heather asked.
“That knowledge is on a need to know basis and, frankly, you don’t need to know.”
“So, what are we supposed to do?” Kimberly asked with a slight tremor in her voice.
“I don’t care what you do or where you go. Kill each other off, if that’s what you want, but be advised that winter is coming soon and it will get bitterly cold. You don’t have the clothing to survive the exposure for long. Also, be warned! If you come around our camp, you could be shot as intruders.” With that, Murdock turned and left the pod.
Just as Murdock, Harris, and Emily left, it was starting to rain and the three wasted no time getting back to their camp.
#
By the time daybreak came, Palmer was soaked, cold, and miserable. He hadn’t sleep well after he ran out of firewood. He had resigned himself to get off the ridge and find more suitable shelter. He got to his feet, gathered his water-skin and twelve-inch machete, and left the make-shift shelter for what he thought would be the last time.
As he retraced his path back to the edge of the terrace, he was finally warming up with the exercise. It didn’t take long before he was at the edge of the terrace with his target tree five or six feet out, he guessed. He took several reappraisals of the situation, partly to gather his nerve. Finally, he walked straight away from the tree and turned. After several deep breaths, he started running as fast as he could toward the terrace-edge. He’d figured he had hit his top speed about the time he reached the edge and launched himself into the open air, arms out and hands open to grab the first limb he made contact with. He had fixed his eyes on a particular limb and had kept them fixed on his target. Shit, he thought as his feet left the ground. What have I done!
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